Lawmakers, Worried About Ky. Computer Plan, May Repeal Cap

Some Kentucky lawmakers are hoping to take advantage of an upcoming
special session to repeal a recently enacted spending cap on consulting
services that state officials argue is hampering development of the
state's $400 million educational-computer network.

Sen. Ed Ford, the chairman of the Senate education committee,
predicted last week that the legislature will abolish the $1 million
annual cap on consulting fees paid by state agencies.

The state education department has estimated that it will cost at
least $8.6 million over two years to get the school-technology project
up to speed.

The cap, which was shepherded through the legislature by Speaker Pro
Tem of the House Pete Worthington, was designed to rein in spending by
the Digital Equipment Corporation, which the state chose as its
consultant for the project.

Mr. Worthington, the chairman of the House education committee, has
been a frequent and vocal critic of the way in which the technology
initiative has been carried out. He argues that the money going to
outside consulting services would be better spent on equipment for the
schools.

If there have been delays, Mr. Worthington contends, they are due
more to inefficiencies at the education department than to the effects
of the fee cap.

"Keep in mind that the cap did not go into effect until July 1 of
this year.'' he said. "We've had plenty of opportunities to get this
thing on the road.''

He noted, for example, that funded positions at the state department
to help implement the initiative remain unfilled.

The technology project, part of the state's 1990 education-reform
measure, is designed to interconnect every classroom in the state
electronically and to provide a networking link between districts and
state administrative offices.

Standards Development Slowed

But at a joint hearing of the House and Senate education committees
last month on the progress of the technology initiative, Commissioner
of Education Thomas C. Boysen and other officials argued that the cap
has had the effect of slowing the development of standards for the
network and school computers.

Unless the standards are developed, they said, schools will not be
able to tap into a $20 million state fund that will provide matching
grants for equipment purchases.

"Local districts, with their own money, can buy whatever they want
to buy, but in order to qualify for state matches [they] must meet
state specifications, one of which is networkability,'' said Jim Parks,
a spokesman for the department.

Mr. Parks added that the state School Facilities Construction
Commission recently agreed to make the $20 million available to schools
to purchase equipment. But while some districts already have begun
purchasing their computers without state aid, others are reluctant to
buy, fearing that they may purchase machines that will not be
compatible with the networking standards that are eventually
adopted.

Mr. Ford said that he raised the issue of delays in the public forum
because of a widespread concern among lawmakers and the public that not
enough progress is being made on implementing the technology plan.

While legislators conceded that some delays were inevitable in such
a project, they said they were growing impatient with the pace of
development.

"I still do not believe that we have moved as fast as I had
originally hoped we would,'' Senator Ford said.

Boosting Public Support

Mr. Ford added that the technology initiative offers the state an
unusual opportunity to spark sustained public support for reform.

"I've always felt that one way we could boost public confidence in
educational reform is if they could see computers in use in the
classroom and hear their children talking about computers in the
home,'' he said.

Mr. Ford said legislators appear willing to consider modifying the
spending cap during the special session on health-care issues that Gov.
Brereton Jones is expected to call late this year or early in
1993.

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